Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) exhibits many characteristics of both asphalt and rigid pavements, but their use is restricted. Many reasons led to this decision, including the fact that RCC is a type of concrete mixture that requires a specific consistency. It should be firm enough to be compacted by a roller compactor but also have enough moisture to ensure even distribution. The lab-field performance difference of RCC is another reason for decreasing its use. The laboratory RCC mixes are prepared using the modified Proctor compaction method. Subsequently, specimens are fabricated utilizing a vibratory hammer (VH) to evaluate their strength properties. Nevertheless, in the construction industry, pavement is built utilizing static, pneumatic, and vibratory rollers. Consequently, quality control is carried out by acquiring pavement samples and comparing them to laboratory samples. Each of these procedures employs different processes and energies, resulting in variations in field and laboratory behavior. In this investigation, some studies will be discussed about the RCC behavior under field and lab conditions using various design methods, such as the vibrating table (VH), vibratory table (VT), gyratory compactor (GC), and modified proctor (MP). These studies showed a difference in RCC mechanical and macroscale properties between laboratory compaction methods. For instance, VH specimens led to a higher evaluation, while GY specimens produced a less favorable estimation of the hardened properties observed in the field. While the MP and VT compacted specimens had a comparable structural arrangement to the field, they exhibited notable differences in terms of porosity and strength. Other studies revealed the essence of the curing stage in terms of RCC mechanical properties and indicated that some curing processes, like compound curing, may improve RCC performance.

This paper aims to develop a framework for differentiating the selection of welding processes using specialized knowledge-based expert systems, which are particularly useful in dealing with issues that require complex decision-making. A program was created and programmed using the process information maps (PRIMAs) matrix in Visual Basic Access for selecting welding processes in a study. The program is in two stages. In the first stage, it excludes non-candidate operations according to several criteria, the most important of which is the type of metal and its thickness. The second stage is arranging operations using multi-criteria methods for decision-making through research to resolve complicated problems involving multiple factors. The hierarchical analysis process (AHP) was used. It is considered one of the most frequently used multi-criteria decision-making methods. The selection of analytic hierarchical process. AHP criteria depend on experience and knowledge rather than specific data for selecting alternatives and determining weights. The methodology is straightforward, easy to comprehend, and applicable to various domains needing intricate decision-making. The program results are compared with those of a previously published case to choose the best welding processes for a study case, which is a home radiator, and results matching the candidate processes were discovered.

Battered piles are beneficial when used as foundations where significant lateral resistance is required, which could result from extreme water waves, winds, soil pressures, massive hits of explosions, or earthquakes. Experimental and numerical research must focus on that direction to reveal how these foundations behave under different loading conditions. The present study reviews the investigations conducted on the performance of batter pile foundations and attempts to understand and cover various aspects related to this issue; after conducting the review, the results indicate that the negative battered piles provide an efficient lateral stiffness corresponding to positive battered piles and a vertical one. Also, lateral bearing capacity improved with the inclusion of battered piles. Moreover, batter piles respond better than vertical piles in liquefiable soil under seismic excitation. The current study also showed that the pullout capacity of batter piles increased with the batter angle.

A key characteristic of diesel engines is predicting the ignition delay period. This work predicts the ignition delay in diesel engines using combinations of ethanol/diesel fuel blend and pure diesel as fuel replacements. It provides an empirical formula for predicting delay periods. A growing interest in alternative fuel blends, representing a substantial shift from the use of traditional diesel fuel, is reported. Modern study is focused on examining these combinations and how they might affect the dynamics of combustion in diesel engines. Experiments were carried out utilizing five different ethanol/diesel fuel blends, including pure diesel, with ethanol percentages varying from 5% to 20% in 5% quantities. Tests were conducted at a constant engine speed of 1,500 rpm, with various compression ratios of 16, 17, and 18, with torque levels ranging from 0 to 21 N.m. In this study, general formulas for predicting ignition delay are constructed numerically. There was a greater consistency between the experimental outcomes and the expected ignition delay. The findings indicated that the E20 combined fuel continuously exhibited the least igniting delay period across all compression ratio variables. The findings demonstrated that the ignition delay period starts to shorten with increased cetane number, ignition pressure, temperature, and equivalency ratio. A shorter period of ignition delay is the outcome of higher compression ratios. The predictive model created here is a ground-breaking addition to the industry, offering a solid foundation for assessing the efficiency and emissions properties of different ethanol/diesel blends.

Foam concrete is a type of concrete that is widely used in civil engineering as a high-quality building material with low weights and usually low compressive strength. Improving the compressive strength is the main objective of this paper by supplying this type of concrete with different proportions from carbon fibers. This study included preparing an experimental mixture to produce foam concrete consisting of optimal ratios of water-to-cement ratio (0.35), sand-to-cement ratio (1:1.5), and superplasticizer (1.8 %). The appropriate dosage of foaming agent was selected to obtain lightweight foam concrete with an appropriate compressive strength of up to 17.4 MPa and a target density of (1300-1350) kg/m3 after 28 days. Adding carbon fibers gave a 1 % highest compressive strength estimated at 9.77 % but the flow rate decreased by about 8.55 % compared to the reference mixture after 28 days. The results indicate that adding fibers contributed to increasing the compressive strength of foam concrete, but it negatively affected the flow rate.

An adaptive sliding mode control (SMC) based on PWM and an observer scheme for predicting the state of charge (SOC) of lithium-ion batteries is proposed. The control scheme is developed for a dc-dc buck converter used in regulated charge control of lithium-ion batteries. Unlike many estimation schemes where the converter’s output voltage is predetermined and the nonlinearities ignored, the proposed scheme estimates the buck converter’s output voltage, SOC, and nonlinearities in terms of errors in parameters. The stability of the proposed scheme is guaranteed by the Lyapunov method. The simulation was carried out in the Simulink in the MATLAB environment to transition from constant current charging mode to constant voltage charging mode. The results obtained from both modes in the Simulink in the MATLAB environment have shown that the dynamic control system of the SMC is asymptotically stable with excellent robust recovery features to sudden variations in input and un-modelled load.

The utilization of Solar Water Heating Systems (SWHS) is a potential solution to use as an alternative to fuel and electricity in areas where these resources are scarce, costly, and not easily accessible. Research was conducted in Duhok City, Kurdistan of Iraq to evaluate the efficiency of a traditional type of SWHS, namely the serpentine collector variant. An active system collector that employed a moving water pump to facilitate the circulation of water inside the systems was used in the experiment. An analysis was conducted to assess the performance of the collector concerning solar irradiation, wind speed, and mass flow rate. This study utilized a Flat Plate Collector (FPC) with a tubular serpentine shape absorber made of steel sheet and copper tube. The serpentine collector had a maximum total heat loss coefficient of 5.53 . The serpentine collector demonstrated its highest level of practical heat gains at 561W. Its performance was observed to improve with increasing solar irradiation and water mass flow rate, but declined when wind speed exceeded the rated values. The serpentine collector achieved maximum efficiency with a flowrate of 0.042 kg/s, resulting in a productivity of 66.6%. While the maximum increase in water tank temperature in the serpentine collector was 25.8 ℃ at the mass flowrate 0.05 kg/s.

Geopolymer concrete has been proposed to minimize carbon dioxide emissions related to the cement production industry. This environmentally friendly material consists of industry waste materials activated chemically by an activation solution. In this study, the geopolymer mortar has been designed with 70% fly ash and 30% metakaolin. Hydroxide sodium in 14 molar concentrations blended with sodium silicate in a 2.5:1 ratio was used as the activation solution. Rice husk fibers were added as reinforcement in (1%, 1.5%, and 2%), and waste paper (paper pulp and paper ash) was added in (1%, 2%, and 5%) by volume of cementitious material. The geopolymer mortar samples underwent a curing process through exposure to a temperature of 60°C in an oven for 24 hours. The findings indicate that the samples reinforced with 2% rice husk fibers exhibited the most significant improvement in compressive strength, with 59% and 55% increases after 7 and 28 days of curing, respectively. In general, using waste paper and rice husk fibers significantly enhanced the compressive strength of geopolymer mortar.

Travel-time reliability is a crucial performance measure for transportation systems. This research aims to estimate travel time and predict delay time on three routes in Baghdad city using GPS devices: Safi Al-Den Street, Palestine Street, and the Army Channel Expressway. The study was conducted northward from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Reliability indices for the first and second routes with signalized intersections, including buffer index, travel time index, and 95th percentile travel time, were determined. Safi Al-Den Street's buffer time index for links 1 to 3 is approximately 44.75%, 39.87%, and 39.12%, respectively. The highest travel time index value is observed in link 3 at 8.9%. Link 1 has the longest 95% travel time at 659 seconds. Palestine Street shows a high buffer time index in links 1 and 3 at around 32.39% and 24.65%, respectively. The highest travel time index is in link 3 at 6.84%, attributed to congestion from increased educational, medical, and commercial trips. The longest 95% travel time is 430 seconds in link 7. This study offers valuable insights into the reliability of travel time in urban corridors in Baghdad city, aiding transportation planners and engineers in making informed decisions on traffic management, infrastructure development, and policy-making.

Digital image manipulation has become increasingly prevalent due to the widespread availability of sophisticated image editing tools. In copy-move forgery, a portion of an image is copied and pasted into another area within the same image. The proposed methodology begins with extracting the image's Local Binary Pattern (LBP) algorithm features. Two main statistical functions, Stander Deviation (STD) and Angler Second Moment (ASM), are computed for each LBP feature, capturing additional statistical information about the local textures. Next, a multi-level LBP feature selection is applied to select the most relevant features. This process involves performing LBP computation at multiple scales or levels, capturing textures at different resolutions. By considering features from multiple levels, the detection algorithm can better capture both global and local characteristics of the manipulated regions, enhancing the accuracy of forgery detection. To achieve a high accuracy rate, this paper presents a variety of scenarios based on a machine-learning approach. In Copy-Move detection, artifacts and their properties are used as image features and support Vector Machine (SVM) to determine whether an image is tampered with. The dataset is manipulated to train and test each classifier; the target is to learn the discriminative patterns that detect instances of copy-move forgery. Media Integration and Call Center Forgery (MICC-F2000) were utilized in this paper. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in detecting copy-move. The implementation phases in the proposed work have produced encouraging outcomes. In the case of the best-implemented scenario involving multiple trials, the detection stage achieved a copy-move accuracy of 97.8 %.